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Letters: Concerned about cost of city weed program

Las Cruces Sun-News
Published 6:53 p.m. MT Jan. 30, 2018

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Weeds along Hoagland Road get blown around by passing cars.Monday September 25, 2017. The Las Cruces Parks and Recreation Department will start a two month long project called "Just Weed It" that will start Monday October 2. 50 to 60 employees from the department and codes enforcement will work along major thoroughfares and move on to smaller streets.(Photo: Josh Bachman/Sun-News)Buy Photo

Concerned about cost for city weed program

Do you know what the Just Weed It program that took place in Las Cruces right of ways, Chandler Tank and Ethel Pond spent? It was used to incur over $750,000, and counting, cost to the taxpayer to clean up weeds in the two areas and city streets.

I made a public request for information only to find there was no resolution or documentation as to why so much money would be spent that was not specific to the budget. It seems that “blanket” purchase orders for services, that would be used for ancillary services over the period of a year, were bulked together to spend on Just Weed It! I am concerned about how this came about and what approval process actually took place to spend so much.

I have the invoices that show over $50,000 for chemicals, $200,000 for overtime and another invoice for over $315,000 for services. I question that protocol for doing this type of spending does not meet the procurement process and I am understanding there is still more to pay. So in August, when the weeds are back, maybe the city will find some cash on the side of road they can use to pay for this.

Dolores Connor

Former city council member

GOP not welcome in Hispanic Caucus

Michelle Lujan Grisham is wrong. So is Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, recently quoted as saying, “Donald Trump is a racist.” But as the old saying goes, when you point the finger at someone there’s three fingers pointing back to you, which is an appropriate theme for this letter. Ms. Grisham is the chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) of which Mr. Lujan is a member. They are wrong because they won't let Florida Hispanic congressman Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) join the caucus.

According to Politico, after a vote barring Mr. Curbelo from the caucus, the caucus spokesman wanted to dispel the notion that he should be admitted simply because he is Hispanic: “This vote reflects the position of many of our members that Rep. Curbelo and his record are not consistent with those values.” Mr. Curbelo's response: “I will stand up to bigotry and discrimination no matter whether it comes from the left, right or middle.” Amen.

Get that, conservative women of New Mexico, you thought that some of you were Hispanic, but you might not make the cut. However, if you ask Ms. Grisham real nice and if you just change some basic values, then she just might let you in. I cannot think of a better justification for ending government funding of the CHC than this. Taxpayers should certainly not have to fund this nonsense.

It would be absolutely precious to get southern NM progressives’ response to this, do our local elected officials agree with Ms. Grisham? The Republican Party should gobble this up. Young citizens need to know the truth: You can be a bigot and a racist in New Mexico if you just belong to the correct party.